social media as a sword

Neil Gaiman recently came under fire from a Minnesota Republican leader who called him a “pencil-necked weasel” and accused Gaiman of stealing $45,000 from the state of Minnesota. Interesting since Gaiman had been in Minnesota at the invitation of the republican party. What is most interesting, however, is that Gaiman was able to use social media to not only defend himself against the slurs but to force his will upon the name-calling representative, House Majority Leader Matt Dean. After Gaiman posted details of the incident at his blog, his legion fans forced a denial of service attack on Dean’s website. This was not at the prompting of Gaiman who remained above the name-calling, but it certainly was on his behalf.

Of course, you can’t please everybody, something Gaiman recently learned after a brush with a Republican leader from the state of Minnesota. Previously, Gaiman was paid a handsome sum for a public speaking engagement for the state of Minnesota, and apparently, one of the elected officials from the GOP didn’t agree and lashed out at Gaiman as a result. To wit, House Majority Leader Matt Dean apparently didn’t like the message Gaiman delivered, and as a response, Dean called Gaiman a “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.”

Dean also indicated he hated Gaiman, which is always a brilliant strategy for an elected official, especially one who has risen to the level of House Majority Leader.

Needless to say, Gaiman and his legion of fans did not take such trash-talk idly. According to BoingBoing, after Gaiman tweeted a link to Dean’s website, the site was crashed. Nothing like a Denial of Service attack featuring real-live people instead of bots, aye? Speaking of Twitter, Gaiman made liberal use of microblogging site in order to provide further details and reactions. He also used his blog to respond as well.